In the Pale Moonlight
' |image= |series= |production=40510-543 |producer(s)= |story= Peter Allan Fields |script= Michael Taylor |director= Victor Lobl |imdbref=tt0708557 |guests=Andrew Robinson as Elim Garak, Stephen McHattie as Vreenak, Howard Shangraw as Grathon Tolar, Jeffrey Combs as Weyoun, Casey Biggs as Damar |previous_production=Inquisition |next_production=His Way |episode=DS9 S06E19 |airdate=15 April 1998 |previous_release=(DS9) Inquisition (Overall) The Omega Directive |next_release=(DS9) His Way (Overall) Unforgettable |story_date(s)=51721.3 (2374) |previous_story=Vis à Vis |next_story=The Omega Directive }} Summary Going over casualty lists, Sisko realizes there is only one hope of winning the war — the Romulans, who signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion — must be convinced to join the Federation/Klingon Alliance. Sure that the Dominion will eventually invade Romulus anyway, Sisko recruits Garak to discreetly obtain evidence from Cardassia that will bring the Romulans into the war. Sisko soon learns that several Cardassians expressed a willingness to help Garak, but all were killed within one day of speaking with him. Undaunted, Garak suggests that he and Sisko manufacture false evidence of an impending Dominion attack on Romulus, then call a secret meeting with a Romulan senator scheduled to be in the sector and present it to him. Frustration with the war convinces Sisko to agree, and when Garak recruits a condemned prisoner named Tolar to create the crucial evidence, the scheme begins. Garak locates the Cardassian data rod necessary for the forgery, but Sisko must reluctantly trade a rare and dangerous compound for it. Then he, Garak, and Tolar get to work, creating a recording of a holographic meeting in which Weyoun, the Dominion leader, and Cardassia's Damar discuss plans to invade Romulus. Soon afterward, Senator Vreenak arrives. Vreenak is condescending, sure that the Federation is about to fall to the Dominion. But when Sisko tells him the Dominion is planning to invade Romulus, Vreenak's mood changes. Sisko takes him to a secured holosuite and shows him the recording of the "meeting," after which Vreenak asks to examine the data rod. He later faces Sisko and announces that the rod is a fake. A furious Vreenak leaves the station, vowing to expose Sisko to the entire Alpha Quadrant. Instead, the Romulan's shuttle explodes, killing him and damaging the forged data rod. An investigation points to the Dominion, but while the rest of his crew is ecstatic, Sisko is infuriated. He confronts Garak, who admits he suspected the rod might not pass inspection and placed a bomb on Vreenak's shuttle to guarantee the plan worked. Sure enough, it does — the Romulan Empire formally declares war against the Dominion. Sisko is upset to have lied and cheated, but with a possible victory finally in sight, he decides it's a feeling with which he can live. Errors and Explanations Nit Central # Corey Hines on Monday, December 14, 1998 - 12:12 pm: Bashir needs to be reminded that the Dominion have a non-aggression pact with the Romulans. He was there when it was first announced in Call to Arms and it was part of his projections in Statistical Probabilities. With his genetically engineered brain, how would he have forgotten that? Maybe he was under the impression that the pact either wasn’t entirely valid, a cynical ploy by the Dominion, or both. # Norman on Wednesday, February 24, 1999 - 6:18 am: Since Sisko had once recorded a message and then erased it, can't his confession be retrieved given someone with computer know-how (especially since this is the Cardassian system where an old forgotten unnamed seeming deleted file ends up activating Dukat's security program in Civil Defense) dotter31 on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 6:26 am: Possibly, but who would be looking for it? No one knows about it outside of who Sisko talked to, and all of those people agreed with him or are dead. # So how can a datarod that was seen clearly as a fake seem real after it was part of a ship's explosion (I'm sure there were other Romulans versed in recognizing the difference)? Jesse on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 12:40 pm: It didn't look real. It still had the same imperfections after the blast that Vreenak detected before. It's just that, as Garak says, any imperfections or irregularities in the rod would no doubt be written off by the Tal'Shiar as damage from the blast. It's like a hard drive from a computer that in was in an office fire; the data on it would be damaged. # Dax looked at Sisko as if she knew he must've had a hand for a turn of events since she knew it was his goal. Why did she decide not to press further (or did she decide that she knew and it was none of her business and that's that)? She understood the importance of getting the Romulans to join the war against the Dominion. # Ben Eaton on Thursday, February 18, 1999 - 3:40 pm: Garak's a member of section 31!!! consider the following: Entry of the Romulans into the war by any means necessary? Trying to wipe out the great link when they were just a threat and not a direct challenge to the Federation (Broken Link) His whole spying career? This man is a double agent and no mistake, why did he try and get back into the Obsidian order at such a critical moment (The Die is Cast)? think about it carefully Despite his less than admirable morals he has always acted in the best interests of the Federation Relationship with Bashir and Bashir's relationship with section 31...seeing a pattern here? There's a lot of other stuff which if you go back and watch will make a lot more sense if you bear this in mind. i don't think the creators had this lined up but it'll happen soon. ''Charles Cabe on Thursday, February 18, 1999 - 8:09 pm:''Perhaps McCoy was a member of Section 31? Always on the bridge. Not moving above Commander in 27 years. (He is an Admiral in TNG). With enough work, I think we could prove anyone is in Section 31. # Callie Sullivan on Wednesday, March 10, 1999 - 3:36 am: If I remember correctly, Sisko initially says that there aren't 200 (somethings) of biomemetic gel in the entire quadrant, but later insists that Bashir pack up 80 (somethings) of the gel, which suggests that there might be even more of the stuff in the Infirmary. If this stuff is so rare, how come there's so much of it kicking around on DS9? Cybermortis on Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 7:25 pm: One of the uses given for the gel was cloning experiments. If so it could probably be used to clone new body parts and organs for injured personal. In fact, given that Bashir is clearly the one in charge of the stuff I'd assume it has benign medical applications. # I had a real problem with Starfleet approving Sisko's plan. I would have thought that, no matter how desperate they were and how badly they were being thrashed, they wouldn't ever come down from their high standards of honesty. If Sisko had said that they hadn't approved his idea but he was going ahead with it anyway and would face the consequences, or if he'd said they were thinking about it but he didn't have time to wait for the reply, I could have accepted it more easily. But Starfleet approving lies and deception? Didn't seem right to me - and The Great Bird must be spinning in his ashes! Rene on Wednesday, March 10, 1999 - 1:08 pm: Um...where have you been during the past few years? Section 31, the phase cloak, the refusal to give up the Gamma Quadrant, the situation with the Maquis, the incident with the Ba'ku, the attempt to take over the Federation… Starfleet isn't a holy place anymore. Thank God. Because I seriously doubt four hundred years of technology will transform us into perfect humans with no faults. Heck, the Federation wasn't so squeaky clean in TOS. It's only in TNG when Roddenberry lost his mind that the Federation suddenly became this organisation filled with perfect humans. # Keith Alan Morgan on Saturday, May 01, 1999 - 6:57 am: Bio-mimetic gel is not for sale at any price, but didn't Riker offer some bio-mimetic gel to a trader in the NextGen episode Firstborn? That could have been intended as a gift – assuming Riker intended to hand it over! # Dave on Thursday, August 09, 2001 - 5:46 pm: I don't understand something at the end. Evidently this senator Vreenak was killed by Garak's bomb before he could tell his Government about Sisko's tricking them into the war. Now we don't know for sure how long it was after he left DS9 until his shuttle exploded, but I think he would have had more than enough time to contact his government via subspace and inform them what was going on. The only thing I can think of is that Garak somehow managed to sabotage his communications while he was planting the bomb. Anonymous on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 7:03 pm: Dave, Vreenak was probably so outraged with Sisko that he wanted to wait until he got home to deliver his report and the forged datarod in person. LUIGI NOVI on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 9:21 pm: Moreover, Captain DeSoto didn't relay the fact that he was intercepting the Enterprise in the beginning of Tin Man because of the danger of Romulan eavesdropping, and Data was able to do this with the Romulans' communications, IIRC, in Unification Part 1 (TNG). It is possible Vreenak did not want to disclose this information over subspace for the same reason. Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine